billr@truevision.com (Bill Romanowski) (01/24/91)
On the subject of RenderMan compatible modelers... The VGA/TOPAS that I have that exports RIB files produces objects that consist of polygons(only) with lots and lots of vertices. Granted the modeler is fun as far as unique features and ease of use especially for making nice extruded and beveled fonts but I hope on next pass at it they start putting out higher order surfaces. Also TOPAS supports only one shadow producing light per scene and the light is more or less a point light with no falloff. No spotlight-type illumination. Also no direct support for RenderMan shaders. It's most useful when you model in the TOPAS world, export the rib file and text edit it into submission. Otherwise it's plastic and wallpaper world. FastCAD from Evolution Technologies is somewhat a cad-ish modeler but supports RIB files with many of the objects put out as NURBS. Comes bundeled with 386 RenderMan for around $3000. bill r code mule ----------------------